An IT industry insider's perspective on information, technology and customer challenges.

March 25, 2015

Those of you who have followed me over the years know that I’m not shy when it comes to a good competitive dust-up. I’m OK with the usual puffery and slightly exaggerated claims. All part of the fun.

I’m not OK when I believe the claims are misleading.

One startup is working very hard to convince everyone that they (and they alone) are leading the current trend in HCI — hyperconverged infrastructure. One of their spokespeople even published a thoughtful piece listing the ten reasons why they thought they deserved the “leader” mantle.

While I admire their bravado, I felt the piece did a disservice to both the industry and to customers. I thought it grossly misrepresented both the current and future state of the market.

Perhaps most importantly, there was little talk about what mattered most to customers.

So — while staying positive — I’d like to share my "ten reasons" why I think VMware is leading — and will continue to lead — the hyperconverged marketplace.

March 11, 2015

Looking for a great disruption story in enterprise IT tech? I think what VSAN is doing to the established storage industry deserves to be a strong candidate.

I've seen disruptions -- small and large -- come and go. If you're into IT infrastructure, this is one worth watching.

A few years ago, I moved from EMC to VMware on the power of that prediction. So far, it’s played out pretty much as I had hoped it would. There’s now clearly a new dynamic in the ~$35B storage industry, and VMware’s Virtual SAN is very emblematic of the changes that are now afoot.

There’s a lot going on here, so it’s worth sharing. In each case, you’ll see a long-held tenent around The Way Things Have Always Been Done clearly up for grabs.

How much easier is it to order a block, brick, node, etc. of IT infrastructure as a single supportable product, and move on to more important matters?

A lot easier, it seems ...

Reference architectures have been around for ages. I think of them as a blueprints for building a car, and not like buying one. Some assembly required. Useful, yes, but there’s room for more.

VCE got the party started years back with Vblocks: pre-integrated virtualized infrastructure, sold and supported as a single product — with their success to be quickly followed by other vendors who saw the same opportunity.

A group of smaller vendors took the same idea, but did storage in software vs. requiring an external array, dubbing themselves “hyper-converged”: Nutanix, Simplivity and others. They, too, have seen some success.

Last August, VMware got into this market in a big way by introducing EVO:RAIL — an integrated software product that — when combined with a specific hardware reference platform from an OEM partner — delivered an attractive new improvement over the first round of hyper-converged solutions.

While EVO:RAIL had several partners who offered immediate availability, EMC decided to take their time, and do something more than simply package EVO:RAIL with the reference hardware platform.

Today, we get to see what they’ve been working on — VSPEX BLUE. It’s not just another EVO:RAIL variant, it’s something more.

I have been completely immersed in VSAN for the last six months. It's been great. And now I get to publicly share what’s new and — more importantly — what it means for IT organizations and the broader industry.

If there was a prize for the most-controversial storage product of 2014, VSAN would win. In addition to garnering multiple industry awards, it’s significantly changed the industry's storage discussion in so many ways.

Before VSAN, shared storage usually meant an external storage array. Now there’s an attractive alternative — using commodity components in your servers, with software built into the world’s most popular hypervisor.

While the inevitable “which is better?” debate will continue for many years, one thing is clear: VSAN is now mainstream.

This post is a summary of the bigger topics: key concepts, what’s new in 6.0, and a recap of how customers and industry perspective has changed. Over time, I’ll unpack each one in more depth — as there is a *lot* to cover here.

January 29, 2015

Like so many others, I found the industry move to cloud fascinating on so many levels: new technology models, new operational models, new application models, new consumption models, etc.

I wrote endless, lengthy blog posts attempting to explore every nook and cranny. Even to this day, the topic continues to intrigue me.

One of the things I spent much time considering was what I dubbed the "cloud supply chain".

As an example, supply chains in the physical world are responsible for transforming raw materials into finished goods we all consume. Every company along the way specializes at what they do best at, and cooperates with others who are good at other things. It's rare when you see a single company responsible for everything from raw materials to customer service.

Cloud services should be no different, I thought.

Specialized players -- each with different strengths -- could and should combine into supply chains to create more value than any single player alone.

Today, VMware's vCloud Air service announced a strategic partnership with Google's Cloud Platform Services. Customers of vCloud Air can now use select Google Cloud Platform services relatively transparently: with a single contract, and a single point of support.

It's a great example of a cloud supply chain -- but will we see more?

And the bigger question, still not answered: what will be the dominant industry model that serves enterprise IT?

January 06, 2015

I used to regularly do my list of New Year predictions. My success rate has been reasonable, but this year is different.

Why? Because this year, I believe there is one vastly important trend that will begin to drive more change across the IT landscape than all the other possible candidates combined.

And that driving force is the 3rd platform — and the new breed of applications it supports.

We’ve all been talking about it for a few years. It’s not a contentious discussion, although it's been rather abstract for many. But, in 2015, it shows every sign of getting very real for many more IT groups.

The required ingredients are now in place. The spark is beginning to ignite the mixture. And the changes should come very quickly as a result.

Like a meteor hitting the earth — the IT world is going to look very different before too long.

December 03, 2014

Way back when VSAN was introduced, I wrote how its deep integration with the vSphere kernel and software stack gave it some pretty interesting advantages — especially as compared to any storage software that ran in a guest OS.

I sparked a bit of a debate, but that's normal :)

Well, VMware is not the kind of company that wants to preclude deep, value-added integration with vSphere, so I knew it was only a matter of time until one or more storage software vendors could claim that, yes, they too were “kernel integrated” with vSphere — at least, to some degree.

So now I’m in the slightly awkward position of having to dig even deeper into the topic for those that care.

The technical distinctions do matter to a certain crowd; everyone else might want to skip this post :)

November 13, 2014

Like so many people in this industry, I can get easily enamored by Big Ideas. Powerfully intoxicating, they take your mind off the day-to-day, and transport you to a different place that might exist in the future.

Like a moth to a flame, I’m drawn in — and it takes major willpower to put them down, and move on to something else. Fortunately, I don’t appear to be alone in this regard.

Over the course of eight years of blogging and 1200+ blog posts, there are clearly times when I have fallen prey to the seductive power of Big Ideas.

I thought it might be fun to go back and ask the question — where are they now?

For the most part, people were disagreeing without being disagreeable. How civil.

That being said, I tend to reflect on things after the fact. I came to the conclusion that it was an incomplete discussion on several levels.

If you’re not into storage stuff, perhaps this would be a good post to skip. A friendly reminder: everything in this blog represents my personal opinion, and is not reviewed nor approved by employer. Or anyone else for that matter.

October 29, 2014

Especially when they neatly summarize a very complex and nuanced discussion. I heard this one being used at one of our internal VMware meetings, and it rang like a bell in my brain. I’ll reserve the right to give credit where credit is due when I track down the original source.

Hybrid — as in hybrid clouds. “-icity” — a measure of degree, as in “elasticity”.

Hybridicity: a measure of just how hybrid is a particular cloud computing environment. In this context, more hybridicity is better than less hybridicity.

If we’re going to see more mainstream adoption of public cloud services by enterprise IT groups, I believe the core argument is going to be around hybridicity — how much, what kind, how good?

October 15, 2014

The enterprise IT model is changing fast: IT now strives to become the internal service provider of choice, offering an attractive portfolio of services that are convenient for the business to consume.

All of the sudden, IT starts to look more like modern manufacturing, and less of a project-oriented crafts guild.

As anyone who has run a good-sized business will know, it’s all about “the numbers”: how much, how good, how fast, etc.

You wouldn’t try to run a business without good financial instrumentation — and the same is quickly becoming true for many progressive IT shops.

But the question comes up — what tools exist that do all of this?

I’d like take you on a quick tour through VMware’s vRealize Business offering.

I think is one of the many “hidden gems” in the VMware portfolio. It offers a surprisingly rich suite of ITBM (IT Business Management) functionality that’s becoming essential in modern IT environments — and stands head-and-shoulders above many alternatives.

At one level, one could simply say that this is the familiar changing-of-the-guard in the IT business: larger companies with familiar business models being overtaken by smaller and more nimble upstarts.

September 25, 2014

Give in to external pressure, and you can end up miserable before long. Take a strong, independent stand, and everyone will likely be unhappy with you before long.

So how do you navigate that quintessential win-win?

That’s how I see mentoring: helping good people craft their approach to getting what they want out of their career.

The advantages for those being mentored are substantial: an impartial perspective, good advice, new connections, and honest feedback. But being a mentor for others also has its rewards, often unappreciated by many.

I’ve had the good fortune of being mentored, and being a mentor. I’d recommend both for just about anyone so inclined.

September 16, 2014

A memo from Captain Obvious: flash continues to change how we think about storage.

For me, the party started way back in 2008 when EMC introduced an enterprise-grade flash drive for Symmetrix. Fast forward to 2014, and the party is still rocking strong …

Up to now, most of my customer discussions have been how to best use flash with precision: surgical strikes on key areas where IO response times are a problem. The approach makes a certain sense: flash drives are more expensive than the magnetic spinning variety.

But in the last six months, it’s not unusual to meet a customer that sees themselves going “all flash” either now, or before too long.

The mindset has clearly begun to shift from "use flash to manage performance problems" to "use flash as the default". We're not talking exotic use cases, it's showing up in bread-and-butter enterprise IT settings.

September 09, 2014

If you’re a server manufacturer, you’re playing a very demanding game.

There’s a never-ending parade of new technologies you’ve got to rapidly adopt. Customers expect both flawless execution as well as steadily declining prices. And you’ve got some pretty aggressive competitors as well :)

August 28, 2014

No surprise, I’m out in gorgeous SF for the annual gathering of the vFaithful — VMworld 2014.

As before, it’s quite an experience, even for a jaded event veteran like me. Like a desert blooming after a rainstorm, Moscone Center is transformed into a fascinating technology experience, and — then — we wait until next year for it to happen all over again.

I’m not capable of giving you a detailed report on everything that happened at VMworld — there’s way too much to cover.

Instead, I thought I’d share with you what stood out for me personally.

August 18, 2014

As a younger version of my present self, I was supremely confident in what I knew to be true — especially when it came to all things enterprise IT tech.

There was generally accepted wisdom about many things; to disagree with certain tenets made people question your expertise.

But with age and experience, I realized that many of the “obvious truths” on which I had built my belief system were quickly becoming fallacies.

Time for a new religion?

No, not really — more of a never-ending appreciation of how the world really works. That means modifying old frameworks, and creating new ones.

I often meet younger versions of myself, also supremely confident in their current beliefs. I don’t try and challenge them directly, but I do make the point that “obvious truths” in this business have a very short shelf-life indeed.

August 04, 2014

I do admit I had a moment of temptation, but then realized that I don’t like demeaning titles, and assume the same for most of you as well.

But I will ‘fess up to a certain level of frustration results when discussing advanced IT concepts with my colleagues and customers.

The natural temptation is to put whatever’s being discussed on the operating table, and surgically dismembering a big concept into constituent technologies, which are then individually criticized. Frequently, the forest is lost in a critique about individual components of the trees.

Can I attempt a big picture?

IT consumption continues to balloon exponentially with no end in sight. Between commodity hardware and open source, the traditional ingredients are predictably getting cheaper and cheaper — but not outracing demand, it seems.

Which leaves us with a renewed and intense focus on operational efficiency: primarily the effort required to get something done. While new shiny technologies are always interesting, the new lens should be “how does this new thing enable a new operational model?”

Because how we do things is becoming much more important than what we use to do them.

July 30, 2014

Many of my VMware colleagues and I are seeing the same thing, time and time again.

We’re doing a general update on things VMware — a smorgasbord of different topics. We get to the segment on vCHS — VMware’s vCloud Hybrid Service. Frequently, they either haven’t heard about it, or don’t know much about it.

That's an opportunity waiting to happen.

Because within 5 minutes, they’ll quickly grasp how a hybrid cloud is different, and how they might use it. Heads nod, light bulbs go off, the discussion gets animated — all that.

Given the inherent skepticism of many enterprise IT groups towards All Things Cloud, you might not expect that sort of positive reaction. But true hybrid clouds aren’t like other public cloud services — and that’s what makes them so darn appealing to so many enterprise IT groups.

July 28, 2014

Several years ago, it became clear to me that the next aspirational model for enterprise IT was “IT as a Service”, or ITaaS.

At its core was a simple yet powerful idea: that the core IT operational model should be refashioned around the convenient consumption of IT services.

Under the ITaaS model, most everything IT does is now presented as a variable service, marketed to users, with supply driven by the resulting demand.

IT becomes the internal service provider of choice.

Now, several years later, that once-controversial idea has clearly grown deep roots, with many examples of progressive IT organizations embracing this perspective. Some have made the transition, some are mid-journey, others have yet to begin. The IT world has moved forward.

So, it’s fair to ask — what might come next? I have a strong suspicion as to what the next operational model will be.

July 15, 2014

One of the time-honored rituals in the IT industry is the periodic publishing of Gartner’s Magic Quadrants for different enterprise technology categories.

While some inevitably poke fun (e.g. the Mystical Quadrilateral, the Prescient Parallelogram, etc.), most any IT vendor will tell you it’s very serious business indeed.

Years of effort are spent trying to painfully nudge our particular dot upwards and to the right. Gartner doesn’t hand out free passes.

Once you get your product into a favored position (e.g. one of the leaders), the goal then shifts to create as much distance as you can between your dot and everyone else in your category.

This is the fifth year Gartner has recognized VMware as one of the leaders in the hypervisor category. Per Gartner’s rules, vendors can’t claim to be the singular leader, just one of the plural leaders.

No shock, Gartner identified two MQ leaders in hypervisor technology: VMware and Microsoft. Fair enough. It wouldn’t do to have just one :)

But as I read through the Gartner analysis and criteria for judging, it felt almost historical in nature. How Gartner has historically viewed hypervisor choice — and how I think enterprise IT groups now view hypervisor choice — have clearly separated.

July 08, 2014

The individual infrastructure components are straightforward enough when considered individually; getting everything to interoperate smoothly is far more burdensome.

As hardware prices fall — and IT capacity balloons — the focus has clearly shifted to improved operational efficiency: doing more/faster/better but without adding more people. “Simple” is the new killer app in enterprise IT infrastructure.

All three approaches to integrated infrastructure — converged, hyper-converged, hypervisor-converged — have that singular goal in mind: making things simpler.

But each approaches the problem in a different way — and with different results.

July 01, 2014

In case you missed it: the beta for vSphere "next" is live, available here:

It's an open beta -- just about anyone can participate. That's cool.

If you're a storage geek like me, you'll find the vVol bits are there, and -- depending on your storage vendor -- you can start to put the new vVol storage management model through its paces. If you're not familiar, more on that here.

If you're into VSAN, you'll find the beta of the next version as well. Big fun.

For those of you who were worried you had nothing to do during the upcoming holiday weekend in the US, here's your project.

June 19, 2014

A promising young start-up (Code Spaces) was held up for ransom by an intruder who broke into their AWS account and took control. The digital kidnapper wanted a payoff, or else …

A sad posting says that — basically — all their customer’s data is gone, and they’re done for. That’s it. There’s no coming back for them. Not to mention the pain inflicted on their trusting customers.

In a not entirely-unrelated story, in the US, the IRS (the tax agency) is in serious hot water because they can’t produce emails in the context of a congressional investigation. The excuse? The emails were on a personal hard drive (??), which failed, and has long been disposed of.

While the IRS is not out of business (after all, they’re a government agency), they’re certainly seriously impacted by the incident, making doing business more difficult. No, I’m not going to try and claim the same with my personal tax records …

June 18, 2014

So many people enamored with the brave new world of web-scale IT. You see them online, at conferences, etc. — brimming with passion, enthusiasm and excitement. I call them the clouderati — their heads are clearly in the clouds.

It seems that every few weeks this group brings us a new shiny meme that captures a lot of attention: containers, devops, OpenStack, NoSQL databases, Open Compute — even machine-learning algorithms for energy efficiency.

I’m certainly not immune to the attraction. So many innovative concepts to learn about, evaluate, debate, etc. If you’re looking for intellectual stimulation, there’s no shortage.

But, in many ways, it’s world unto itself — this world of the clouderati.

A shiny bubble, floating over the vast and often grim landscape of real-world enterprise IT. No one is debating the coolness of whatever the latest idea might be; it’s just that it’s not consumable by the vast majority of enterprise IT shops.

If it’s not consumable, it’s not particularly interesting to this audience.

Judging by many of the conversations I’ve had, I believe that many of these enthusiastic new web-scale tech people might not have a gritty appreciation of the enterprise IT terrain. So, in an effort to promote a more productive dialog, here is my quick primer on just a few of the harsh realities of enterprise IT.

June 10, 2014

Anytime a new concept enters the marketplace, the inevitable Definition Wars begin.

Understandably, it takes a while for the industry to collectively wrap its head around a consensus perspective regarding a new subject.

When it comes to one of my personal hot topics (software-defined storage), I do try to patient, but I fail. I despair as I encounter many of the flaccid definitions currently in vogue.

Maybe my standards are too high?

Making matters more irritating is the seemingly endless army of chirpy storage marketing types looking to slap a fresh label on familiar products and technologies — inserting even more noise into an already weak signal.

In this post, I’m going to resist the temptation to assert a black-and-white definition, and disclaim all others. The reality is that software-defined storage is a cluster of related concepts: some fundamental, others more optional depending on requirements.

Depending on your situation, good enough may be good enough.

As I walk through the list here, I’d encourage the motivated reader to assemble their own personal list of attributes he/she considers important in their emerging environment.

June 05, 2014

I felt I owed everyone a post about an illustrative incident that happened over the last few days.

As we move to more software-based storage stacks, there are some interesting questions arising about the new responsibilities of the various parties involved: software vendors, hardware suppliers, partner and end users.

There’s a new model emerging for building storage solutions, and we now have a well-documented example of some of the inevitable bumps along the way.

May 28, 2014

It looks like most decent-sized enterprise IT organizations have either begun their transformation to an IT-as-a-service model, or are well along their path. Maybe it’s sampling bias on my part, but it’s rare these days to meet an IT team who isn’t doing at least something with the concepts.

At some point along the way, the quintessential subject of automation emerges as a Really Important Topic. And — sad to say — there is no “automation pill”.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to share my perspective on the different “cloud automation” packages that are out there. As a VMware employee, I would have been quite justified in singing the praises of vCAC, and dissing all alternatives.

But I didn’t take the easy bait.

Instead, we got into a great discussion around the desirability of having an “automation philosophy” that could help IT leaders guide their choices and approach.

May 22, 2014

My parents thought it an important milestone towards growing up, being more responsible, etc. I guess I didn't get that memo, as I was hoping for a slingshot at the time.

As I saw the wallet as completely useless, it sat in a drawer for many years gathering dust.

Today, I was buying gas.

I reached into my wallet to pull out a credit card, and — dang!! — the entire contents fell into the Crevice Of No Return: that slim gap between the driver’s seat and the center console. Down on my knees, fishing out small plastic cards, I became seriously exasperated.

And I was once again reminded of how utterly useless a men’s wallet should be in this day and age.

May 20, 2014

The master craftsman Daedalus built wings from feathers and wax to escape Crete with his son Icarus. He told Icarus to not fly too close to the sun, as the wax would melt. Icarus — of course — ignored his father's warning and fell to his death.

Gravity wins again.

Without being unduly over-dramatic, I see the same scene played out countless times for those of us that work as IT vendors. Many of us aspire to be truly consultative to our customers and clients — but the gravity of having to sell specific products and services (with assigned quotas) inevitably drags us down to where we started.

If we fly too close to the sun, we can fall very far indeed.

But it's somewhat paradoxical: the IT industry is changing fast. Simply having a better widget isn’t any guarantee of success; what really matters is your customers’ ultimate success. And that demands a consultative approach.

We often talk the talk, but walking the walk is proving to be much more difficult.

May 14, 2014

In the early days of cloud, we were beset by competing (and confusing) definitions, often delivered with generous helpings of vitriol and rancor.

When it comes to software-defined storage, things are surprisingly genteel: I yet to witness a good #twitpiss on the topic.

Maybe it’s too early?

As part of this series on SDS, I think it’s worthwhile to share and critique other definitions besides the framework we’ve established here. While there seems to be no shortage of frustratingly shallow marketing pieces that glom onto the term; I have been laboring to find a reasonable alternate framework to compare and contrast.

Fortunately, someone sent me a link to a short PDF produced under the auspices of SNIA — the Storage Networking Industry Association. Although it’s only a working draft, it does show that reasonable people can get together and come up with a definition that’s quite different than the one presented here.

May 01, 2014

From a very simple set of ideas, a cornucopia of choices now exist: each its own distinct flavor.

That’s the way technology matures: innovation, differentiation and speciation.

I was originally a UNIX guy. For years, I had that wall-sized chart that showed how UNIX evolved over the years. I’m sure one could create a similar wall-sized infographic showing the evolution of “cloud”.

And, yes, people still fruitlessly argue that some forms are “better” than others.

We’re going to see something very similar when it comes to software-defined storage. Many flavors of the same idea will compete for adoption.

Everyone who drops by the room (even to just say"hi") can grab a cool VSAN t-shirt for their collection. Until we run out, that is.

We have five 30-minute training modules. Each separate module you complete enters you in a drawing to win one of the Chromebooks we'll be using in the lab. We'll be announcing the winners at 5:30 on Wednesday. You don't have to be present to win.

Follow #VSANlab on Twitter for status during the show -- and prize winners!

I've worked with Chad and John in the past. I work with Christos and Richard now that I'm at VMware. By my standards, each one of them qualifies as a bonafide visionary on the subject. Trust me, they all have a lot to say, and don't necessarily always agree on things :)

April 28, 2014

As we continue our series on software-defined storage (or SDS), I think it’s time to turn a critical eye on the current state of affairs, and be completely transparent on many of the obstacles and challenges that inevitably lie ahead.

The move to a entirely new technology stack -- and the associated operational model -- can be a long journey. It's nice to know what to expect along the way ...